Warlords of Draenor - Developer Interview
The ReadyCheck podcast had the opportunity to talk with several developers recently. You can find a full transcript of the interview on their site, and the highlights below:

Arenas

Arenas didn't fit the game as well back in Burning Crusade, as classes weren't designed to be balanced for 1v1 or 2v2 in PvP then, but things are better now.

The arena history stats were removed from armory because they took up a lot of storage space and weren't used by many players. It might be possible to add some sort of history for Trial of the Gladiator.

Solo queue arena is something the developers are looking at, but there are several challenges that would have to be overcome before it was possible. (The number of players for each role isn't balanced, having to queue until you find a decent group to play with, randomly created comps that aren't great, etc)

The developers are aware that some players want skirmishes back, but the development time needed would take away from time spent on something else. Being able to do arenas without consequences would be nice though.

Arena prep times might be slightly too long.

PvP

Patches involve an initial overhead no matter how many changes are in them, so more frequent patches to address PvP balance would slow down the creation and addition of new content.

Hotfixes can also be used to help with balance and are much easier to do.

Rapid changes are hard to keep up with, and small tweaks don't have a large impact on PvP, so these aren't the best ways to handle changes.

Allowing people to solo queue for things greatly increases the participation rate, but it also increases toxic behavior. Hopefully the Group Finder in Warlords of Draenor will make it easier to find groups to do PvP with.

Warlords of Draenor PvE

The developers realize that there is still an audience for Burning Crusade level difficulty Heroic dungeons. Challenge modes were designed to be harder content, but the focus is on speed and not as much on having to use as much CC, so they don't capture the essence of Burning Crusade era Heroics.

One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was offering a chance of LFR level rewards for completing hard dungeons with a deliberate pace. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well.

Mythic dungeons are also a possibility for the future, though none are planned right now.

Warlords of Draenor raid bosses will continue to use a mix of familiar raid mechanics, new raid mechanics, and new tech to create interesting encounters. Siegecrafter Blackfuse is an example of a boss that combined familiar mechanics to make a fresh encounter.

Warlords of Draenor Misc

Warlords of Draenor has a harder and darker story than Mists of Pandaria did.

Warlords of Draenor improves the questing experience by showing the main story line in each zone on your UI and encouraging exploration. Outdoor content that isn't based on daily quests but still allows some progression will also help.

The guild finder tools need an update, but it isn't likely to happen for Warlords of Draenor. Being able to do more things cross-realm will allow guilds to try out or find new members.

There are no plans for going free to play right now, as they are happy with the current business model.

There will be more expansions after Warlords of Draenor.

Random Battleground Queue Times

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Faction imbalance is definitely something that's contributing to the lengthy queue times. That said, we agree that allowing Horde vs Horde and Alliance vs Alliance Random BG's isn't a great answer. We'll do it if it's absolutely necessary (Rated BG's allow for same-faction battles for exactly this reason), but we're going to look at all other options first.

Honestly, even if we can't find another good answer, we're not sure queue times are so bad, at least at the moment, that same-faction Random BG's would be worth it. Horde vs Alliance, Orcs vs Humans, Elves vs Trolls etc. has long been a strong core of the Warcraft universe. We want queue times to be faster for everyone, but we also don't want to lose that.

20 minute queues at peak hours makes BGs FAR less worth it than just doing dungeons and trading for honor.
Definitely agree here, but that's part of a larger issue we've been discussing lately about the random BG reward system. I don't have any specifics to share just yet, but it's very much on our radar. We're actually hoping that whatever changes we can make along those lines will also have the side effect of helping queue times a bit (though again, we're still looking into more options there).

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesHi any plans to make all buffs passive auras like shaman buffs. I think buffing is not skillful ore interesting anymore.
Buffs (like Mark of the Wild) don't really take up keybind space. They also have a perk that the caster can die. (Celestalon)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)the death knight ability [Death Grip] has ben bugged on the two new maps since release, planing on fixing it this decade or what ?
We have a fix but it requires a patch. (holinka)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)For what purpose does an attack over 30% max hp cancel lightwell ticks?
I believe it was originally so that it would be ignored by tanks, and left to raid members. I'm not sure that that's needed now. (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Imp is crap at doing that, time it take it to switch and start casting, is a lost. Pets should switch instantly
Passion is a great thing. However, I think it may be clouding your view here. For example, Imp's recast time is zero loss. (Celestalon) You need to recheck your data - I been playing warlock since day 1, and I know for a fact imp is slow at switching.
You're missing the point; the fact that it takes time to switch doesn't matter. That time is not lost DPS. Imps use energy. (Celestalon)

Character / ItemsAre you going to do something to tailor/trinket/enchant proc stacking in wod? encourages popping evry cd in opener cos procs lineup
Yes. We'll be reducing the number of stacking procs and cooldowns from a variety of sources. (holinka)

DPS player wants to try healing for the 1st time: his basic gear changes to Int, but has no Spirit. Awful mana regen. Thoughts?
He needs to get jewelry made for healers. That's a huge change from today where he needs to get a full set of healing gear. (Celestalon)But does it concern you that less informed players may think they're "ready" for healing once gear conveniently changes to Int?
At worst they try it, go OOM extremely quickly, ask around, or someone tells them, that they should get some Spirit. (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor StatsHow are old food/gems/chants going to work post stat squish? 300 stat food is massive with ilvl 90 stats.
Stats get squished everywhere, including all of those places you listed. (Celestalon)

PvPcan u cut this out in paper for someone whos main language isnt english? I dont get it. Resilience removed in WoD?
In MoP, damage is too high for player health pools so resil lowers damage. In WoD health pools will be relatively bigger. (holinka)how "relatively"? In Mop it feels like health pools would need to be doubled to keep pace with damage.
Starting point we're playing with is doubling health, crits are 150% (down from 200%) and healing up 50% (holinka)Wonder how that's gonna fix, going by only health pools it results in slower kills, still spiky as hell dmg/heal.
It's possible that some damage reduction will have to remain. Point is to minimize it as much as possible. (holinka)
The numbers are just too big right now. It feels crappy to hit a mob for 200k and a player for 40k. (holinka)less damage, more health and more healing? Maybe if the healers get interruptable again but with less interrupts against dd-caster
The health increase is a lot more than the healing increase. (holinka)Yes, more health increase then healing increase. But I see no damage increase! Only less crit damage!
little to no resilience is a HUGE damage increase (holinka)

Will ALL crits be 150%, or will this just mean stack haste/readi/mastery in pvp?
Current thinking is all crits. (holinka)

theres a rumor going around that you said 1k is going to be the cutoff this season.... is 1k going to be cutoff?
Yes, we will only be considering players with a rating of 1000 or higher when determining rewards. (holinka)
1000 is the point where players have commit to more than just trying arena. The # of rewards will be similar to past seasons. (holinka)

what do you think of the idea for separate ratings for different specs?
I would have to give it more thought. My concerns would be confusion and possible exploitation. (holinka)

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"There is still an audience for Burning Crusade difficulty Heroic dungeons. One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was having a speed challenge that would offer a chance of LFR level rewards. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well."

Glad to see they have no clue what made the Burning Crusade Dungeons fun, or good. Also glad to see they won't be making Dungeons and LFR a bit closer in terms of rewards to help even out who does what, based on what they like. Still holding out hope since they said One Idea...... which assumes they had others and or this one didn't make the cut.

"There is still an audience for Burning Crusade difficulty Heroic dungeons. One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was having a speed challenge that would offer a chance of LFR level rewards. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well."

Oooookaaaaay......so uhm.....like challenge modes with gear rewards? Seems a little odd. Why not just make a harder than heroic difficulty with better gear and call it a day?

"There is still an audience for Burning Crusade difficulty Heroic dungeons. One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was having a speed challenge that would offer a chance of LFR level rewards. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well."

Glad to see they have no clue what made the Burning Crusade Dungeons fun, or good. Also glad to see they won't be making Dungeons and LFR a bit closer in terms of rewards to help even out who does what, based on what they like. Still holding out hope since they said One Idea...... which assumes they had others and or this one didn't make the cut.

There has already been so much comments for something other than speed. Not sure where the developers think speed will make it fun especially for those group of friends that just want a non-raiding alternative to LFR. The developers themselves said that speed didnt interest those wanting difficulty as well. This brings up the other concern of what is going on with LFR being demoted to "tourist" mode for those that want to see the content rather than spend their time in there for the long term grind of gear. Cant have alternatives for non-raiders if LFR is the better source of gear and an easier one at that. If LFR gets nerfed then a Vortex Pinnacle difficulty heroic more than justifies LFR level rewards.

The only thing I could think is the developers trying to save a higher difficulty level for later to rejuvenate the launch heroics at the end with something like mythic which becomes moot in the follow expansion. Also a speed run is the void that challenge modes are supposed to fill. Should also only be available in preform to avoid drama in random queue groups with all the more reason that it is designed for premade groups in the first place.

There is still an audience for Burning Crusade difficulty Heroic dungeons. One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was having a speed challenge that would offer a chance of LFR level rewards. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well.

Really that's what they get out of everything the people that want TBC style heroics are saying!? I have an idea these people keep saying they want harder dungeons that are slower and require CC so lets make dungeons that are all about speed and seeing who can zerg the fastest.

Oooookaaaaay......so uhm.....like challenge modes with gear rewards? Seems a little odd. Why not just make a harder than heroic difficulty with better gear and call it a day?

Originally Posted by nekobaka

There has already been so much comments for something other than speed. Not sure where the developers think speed will make it fun especially for those group of friends that just want a non-raiding alternative to LFR. This brings up the other concern of what is going on with LFR being demoted to "tourist" mode for those that want to see the content rather than spend their time in there for the long term grind of gear. Cant have alternatives for non-raiders if LFR is the better source of gear and an easier one at that. If LFR gets nerfed then a Vortex Pinnacle difficulty heroic more than justifies LFR level rewards.

Originally Posted by Cyno

Really that's what they get out of everything the people that want TBC style heroics!? I have an idea these people keep saying they want harder dungeons that are slower and require CC so lets make dungeons that are all about speed and seeing who can zerg the fastest.

Yessss, glad it's not f2p, that's a mistake a lot of games end up making and then people stop playing it after a week (if that).
Still hoping you guys aren't gonna stop at Draenei when it comes to visual upgrades though!! WORGEN ANIMATIONS ARE POOOP ; o ;

"There is still an audience for Burning Crusade difficulty Heroic dungeons. One idea that came up for Warlords of Draenor was having a speed challenge that would offer a chance of LFR level rewards. This would give players that wanted more challenging content a way to do harder content with friends and still be rewarded well."

Oooookaaaaay......so uhm.....like challenge modes with gear rewards? Seems a little odd. Why not just make a harder than heroic difficulty with better gear and call it a day?

So basically Challenge mode with gear and without the timelimit? :P

I can see what you see not - vision milky then eyes rot. When you turn, they will be gone - whispering their hidden song...

Really that's what they get out of everything the people that want TBC style heroics are saying!? I have an idea these people keep saying they want harder dungeons that are slower and require CC so lets make dungeons that are all about speed and seeing who can zerg the fastest.

I really can't believe they think a speed run is what people have been asking for...wouldn't that fall more along the lines of WOTLK heroics, not BC?

gonna be pretty tough to write a story thats darker than mists without being overly dark just for the sake of being overly dark

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Originally Posted by Gohanitos

more expansionS after Wod LOL thought was just one more, will this be a 15 year old game and more? omg

yes.

as long as wow is profitable there is no reason not to continue development for it.

"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon

I'm open for someone to explain to me how you can make a "hard heroic like bc" without there being a time limit. That's what I initially wanted as well, but I really can't come up with any scenario where that works. The mobs in challenge modes hurt, there are a lot of 1 shot mechanics. If I went in there with my group and we just took our time and cc everything and single target mobs down one at a time....that's easier, not to mention less fun. Ignore the time limit, current challenge mode dungeons are harder than bc heroics.